Schoolhouse rock: a look inside the Penang State Museum, Malaysia
Explore Penang's Rich History from a Restored Schoolhouse in George Town
Set in a low-key whitewashed colonial building in the historical district of George Town, Penang, the Penang State Museum now pursues a mission that smoothly proceeds from its premises' previous tenant. Once the home to Asia's first English-language school, the Museum building's renovated, air-conditioned interiors now provide an education of a different sort.
Through two floors within the Museum, visitors can undertake a quick and hands-on lesson on the history of Penang and its peoples.
The ground floor provides separate exhibits on the cultures that settled in Penang: the Malays, the Chinese, and the Indians get a room each, as do the blended Malay-Chinese Peranakan who dominated Penang's business scene in the late 1800s.
Each of the individual displays puts each culture's everyday items and historical relics in the context of their respective traditional practices. Wedding finery, furniture, weaponry, and pictures allow visitors to see each culture as if viewing them from the inside.
The second floor digs deeper into Penang's history as a colony; more on that in the next page.
The Penang State Museum's upper floor delves deep into the history of Penang, first as a British settlement and then as part of a proudly independent Malaysia. Much light is shed here on Penang's role as a British colony, one of Great Britain's Straits Settlements; through paintings, photographs, maps and audio-visual displays, Penang comes to life as an island grounded in Imperial history and kept going through the productive - and sometimes tense - relationships between communities.
Here you'll find a display that expounds on Penang's loyal British subjects (pictured above), best embodied in the Chinese businessman who paid for the construction of the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower that now stands about ten minutes' walk east of the museum. Elsewhere, you'll find information on the massive riots that broke out in 1867, an event that rattled the British colonists' confidence in their ability to keep the peace.
The history lesson continues outside the museum building - a simple garage contains examples of vehicles from Penang's past, including one of the first funicular railway carriage servicing Penang Hill; a three-wheeled Scammell Scarab delivery truck; and the Rolls-Royce that British High Commissioner Henry Gurney was riding when he was ambushed and killed by Communist rebels in 1951.
For info on the Museum's location and nearby attractions, proceed to the next page.
The Penang State Museum can be found along Lebuh Farquhar north of George Town's core streets (location on Google Maps). Rapid Penang Buses U103 / U104 / U204 stop nearby.
The museum is open every day (except on Fridays and public holidays) from 9am to 5pm.
If you're wandering through the northern end of George Town, a visit to the Penang State Museum should serve as a comfortable rest stop; the air-conditioned museum will cool you down sufficiently within the 30-50 minutes it takes to wind through all of the Museum's exhibits.
(Read our list of top things to do in Penang.)
From the Museum, both the Penang City Hall and Fort Cornwallis stand about ten minutes' walk to the north east. To proceed south to see the rest of George Town, proceed west to enter by Lorong Love, or east to enter via Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling. Sri Weld Food Court is about 15 minutes' walk west on Lebuh Pantai.
Visit the Museum's official site: penangmuseum.gov.my.
Set in a low-key whitewashed colonial building in the historical district of George Town, Penang, the Penang State Museum now pursues a mission that smoothly proceeds from its premises' previous tenant. Once the home to Asia's first English-language school, the Museum building's renovated, air-conditioned interiors now provide an education of a different sort.
Through two floors within the Museum, visitors can undertake a quick and hands-on lesson on the history of Penang and its peoples.
The ground floor provides separate exhibits on the cultures that settled in Penang: the Malays, the Chinese, and the Indians get a room each, as do the blended Malay-Chinese Peranakan who dominated Penang's business scene in the late 1800s.
Each of the individual displays puts each culture's everyday items and historical relics in the context of their respective traditional practices. Wedding finery, furniture, weaponry, and pictures allow visitors to see each culture as if viewing them from the inside.
The second floor digs deeper into Penang's history as a colony; more on that in the next page.
The Penang State Museum's upper floor delves deep into the history of Penang, first as a British settlement and then as part of a proudly independent Malaysia. Much light is shed here on Penang's role as a British colony, one of Great Britain's Straits Settlements; through paintings, photographs, maps and audio-visual displays, Penang comes to life as an island grounded in Imperial history and kept going through the productive - and sometimes tense - relationships between communities.
Here you'll find a display that expounds on Penang's loyal British subjects (pictured above), best embodied in the Chinese businessman who paid for the construction of the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower that now stands about ten minutes' walk east of the museum. Elsewhere, you'll find information on the massive riots that broke out in 1867, an event that rattled the British colonists' confidence in their ability to keep the peace.
The history lesson continues outside the museum building - a simple garage contains examples of vehicles from Penang's past, including one of the first funicular railway carriage servicing Penang Hill; a three-wheeled Scammell Scarab delivery truck; and the Rolls-Royce that British High Commissioner Henry Gurney was riding when he was ambushed and killed by Communist rebels in 1951.
For info on the Museum's location and nearby attractions, proceed to the next page.
The Penang State Museum can be found along Lebuh Farquhar north of George Town's core streets (location on Google Maps). Rapid Penang Buses U103 / U104 / U204 stop nearby.
The museum is open every day (except on Fridays and public holidays) from 9am to 5pm.
If you're wandering through the northern end of George Town, a visit to the Penang State Museum should serve as a comfortable rest stop; the air-conditioned museum will cool you down sufficiently within the 30-50 minutes it takes to wind through all of the Museum's exhibits.
(Read our list of top things to do in Penang.)
From the Museum, both the Penang City Hall and Fort Cornwallis stand about ten minutes' walk to the north east. To proceed south to see the rest of George Town, proceed west to enter by Lorong Love, or east to enter via Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling. Sri Weld Food Court is about 15 minutes' walk west on Lebuh Pantai.
Visit the Museum's official site: penangmuseum.gov.my.
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